Generally, a computer system includes a board with various Large Scale Integration (LSI) chips such as a processor mounted thereon, a storage device such as a hard disk, a battery device, and input/output devices, each of which is known to generate heat as each operates in a computer. For some electrical components, such as a processor, a temperature range is often indicated by specifications which set a temperature range indicative of satisfactory and/or optimum performance (hereinafter, as used herein, this temperature and range may also be referred to as “rated temperature”), and often one or more cooling fans are typically provided in conjunction with electrical components in a computer system to keep the temperature in the system within the rated temperature.
A computer system may include multiple processors or electrical components that each need to be cooled by a different cooling fan. The speed of each of these cooling fans may be controlled by a program embedded in the system Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) code in a mode, referred to as the “fan control mode”. Typically, the speed of each of these fans is controlled by pulsing a supply voltage to the fan. The pulse supplied to the fans may vary based on the width, amplitude and frequency of the pulse. These characteristics (width, amplitude and frequency) may all be used to control the speed of the cooling fan.
Cooling fans may be manufactured from different manufacturers and may include different designs that each has specific supply voltage characteristic requirements for optimum performance.
However, the BIOS fan control mode has to work with a variety of cooling fans so that the parameters or characteristics it uses to control the fan supply voltage for all these cooling fans are supported. In order to control fan supply voltage for various cooling fans, the parameters or characteristics it uses are not optimum for any of the cooling fans. By not using the optimum parameters or supply voltage characteristics for any of the cooling fans, the cooling fans may be running faster than necessary or operating for a longer duration than necessary or using more power than necessary. Furthermore, the cooling fans may be operating with a greater amount of noise than necessary by not using the optimum parameters.
If, however, each particular cooling fan in the computer system could be operated using the optimum parameters for that cooling fan, then the cooling fans may be operating more efficiently thereby saving power. Furthermore, the cooling fans may be operating more quietly.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to operate each unique cooling fan in the computer system by using its own optimum parameters or characteristics.